SCUP Books

Find and share timely, relevant knowledge in SCUP’s all-digital publications. You’ll discover tools and tips to help you learn how integrated planning works, what trends are showing up in higher education, how space on campus affects all areas of planning, and more.

All SCUP publications are free to members!

All Books

If you need to understand the elements of an institutional (or large departmental) strategic planning process, this is the book for you. The authors have distilled significant lessons learned from their experiences with a number of mostly smaller colleges and universities, but the principles and processes apply in a wide variety of institutional arenas.

In the new foreword, Dober notes that "there is an ever-widening realization that a distinctive sense of place can have a positive impact on recruiting and retaining students, faculty, staff, trustees, and governing boards." That makes the reprinted-in-full edition of this 1992 campus planning classic a required reference for all who care about the planning and development of an institution's buildings, grounds, and surroundings. Put it on your shelf or coffee table!

This monograph offers ideas, insights, and information about campus heritage. It describes and illustrates the contributions campus heritage can make to promote, strengthen, and support institutional goals and objectives and outlines suggested methods of incorporating campus heritage in campus plans, facility plans, and campus design concepts.

The eight chapters in this book reflect Dober's categories of the elements of campus image and design. Within each chapter, each page displays two campus scenes, chosen for thought-provoking comparison—and a brief comment from Dober regarding each.

This book thoroughly reviews the fundamentals of campus planning. It is divided into three sections: “Prospectus,” “The Campus and Its Parts” (such as instructional facilities, housing, and parking and circulation), and “Campus Plans,” (such as expanding the campus, building a new campus, and renovating). It is rich in concepts and specific solutions, with hundreds of photographs and drawings. It should be on the bookshelf of any campus planner. This classic was first printed in 1963 and is the work of Richard P. Dober, a charter member of SCUP, who influenced campuses worldwide as a planner and consultant to more than 350 educational institutions.

This report was produced by the research team awarded the M. Perry Chapman Prize for 2013–2014. Their progress reports from the research year can be found here.

As the recipients of the 2012–2013 Perry Chapman Prize show in their report, Research on Learning Design: Present State, Future Directions, the study of learning spaces in tertiary education is an emerging field in which the key issues are to “establish a body of knowledge that will guide the design, remodel, and use of new and existing learning spaces” and “evaluate these learning spaces by developing research to determine whether and how they fulfill their purposes.”

This book tells how planners can best situate themselves and their organizations in the emerging network of collaborative resources. The book is organized into the following sections: "Environmental Scanning," "Curriculum Planning," "Enrollment Management," "Human Resources Planning," "Planning for Information Technology," "Student Services," "Academic Planning Within the Larger Context," and "Linking Quality and Accountability."

Skillful management of an institution's physical assets is crucial to the institution's financial well-being. This publication provides executive managers and trustees with guidelines for long-term financial planning for plant renewal and adaption. It provides these strategic decision makers with a better understanding of the financial planning requirements necessary to protect the value of their institution's plant assets in relation to evolving institutional missions by giving them a clearer way to think about those assets. Readers are furnished with guidelines, examples of campus plans that incorporate them, and analytic tools.

This book combines the practical insights of Norris and Poulton's earlier work in A Guide for New Planners with future vision and insight. It takes the reader back through the history of planning and strategy execution in higher education by outlining its many eras and stages of development; highlights the latest thinking and writing on the topic; summarizes the new and emerging challenges facing leaders of colleges and universities; and discusses new techniques and tools (most notably, analytics) to create an enhanced model for planning in higher education.

This project examines the evolution of the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Penn, Princeton, and Columbia (collectively referred to in this study as “the Five”) from their founding, through the centuries of their development, and into the future to better understand how academic and other forces gave form to the buildings and grounds and how historical outcomes may inform future growth.

Very few, if any, organizations operate with anything remotely resembling clockwork precision. As for stability, many organizations need to regularly adapt new practices just to maintain their status quo. Higher education institutions, perhaps more than other organizations, need to consistently practice adaptability to remain competitive and relevant.
—Chapter 1, “Change is a People Process”

Clearly, space affects learning behavior. Yet even in this new Knowledge Age, designers go back constantly to familiar Agrarian and Industrial Age learning space models. For the past decade, SCUPer Lennie Scott-Webber has worked assiduously to comb through the latest behavioral and sociological research relating to how people interact with the built environment. She's taken what used to "sit on shelves in the ivory halls of academe" and has applied it to the physical design of interior learning spaces. Her work, shared in this elegant book with clear and over-sized diagrams and charts, establishes five different archetypal environments that support knowledge sharing.

This excellent collection of case studies "provides tangible evidence that only when silos become integrated 'touchpoints' will the significant outlays of financial resources for new technologies and the mission-based reshaping of higher education organizations make a worthy difference in higher education.—EDUCAUSE Quarterly.

This book is the culmination of several years of discussions, face-to-face roundtables, conference calls, and virtual meetings by the Society for College and University Planning’s Resource & Budget Planning Advisory Group.

Each chapter is a tool for SCUP members that was crafted by experienced, on-campus peer-practitioners. There is a bit of opinion and some original research, but this publication is mostly very practical descriptions, analysis, and insights into tools and processes. We hope you find it to be informative, interesting, and useful.

This text provides insight on the higher education assessment process with an emphasis on planning and metrics. Using their extensive experience on the University of Delaware campus the authors give numerous examples of the integrated nature of planning. Intended for anyone on campus who is involved with the planning or accrediting process, this book provides a useful resource.

Traditional college and university space planning methods largely ignore issues of quality, money, and mission, focusing instead on the application of formulae to strictly categorized space types. Today’s complex challenges, including a significantly reduced resource base, motivate an evolution in methodology. We sketch this evolved comprehensive space planning practice, with its emphases on utilization, economic value, quality, and accountability both to the institutional mission and to stakeholders.

Recently, education researchers have emphasized the redesign of learning spaces to better accommodate pedagogical change. In particular, studies have found evidence of the relationship between the built environment and learning outcomes—however, no current studies have deliberately focused on the “minority majority” feature of America’s future student composition.

This pilot study was conducted to evaluate how space contributes to the learning outcomes of a demographically diverse class of students at Morgan State University, a Historically Black Institution. Based on the neurobiological literature on environmental enrichment, the authors hypothesized that an enriched learning environment will correlate with increased student activity (directed movement) and engagement (with other students, with room features) and result in significantly improved learning outcomes for an ethnically diverse student group.

The book is an outgrowth of Waite's popular SCUP workshops and webcast. In his preface, Waite explains that "[N]on-architects are often placed in positions of leadership or responsibility in a capital project process. Administrators, managers, and academics, while no doubt experts within their own specialties, often have little or no training to prepare them for a role in a major capital project. The purpose of this book is to provide the non-architect with a broad framework of understanding in the steps, phases, and sequence of planning, designing, and delivering a capital project."

Although written focused on the higher education environment, the lessons to be learned from this book are as pertinent in the K–12 and corporate world as they are in the realm of colleges and universities. In addition to appealing to "non-architects," this book should also appeal to architects who (a) may wish to understand what those non-architects are learning from this book and (b) may wish to purchase for distribution to clients or potential clients as part of the information process.

This companion piece to Campus Heritage is published by SCUP and the Association of University Architects (AUA). It describes the forms, fame, and fate of Old Main, arguably higher education's iconic architecture. These edifices came into being as intentional examples of institutional aspirations and accomplishments, track stories of neglect and renewal, illustrate how some lost through human and natural disasters are now remembered with inspiring campus designs, offer reasons why Old Main and comparable buildings and landscapes deserve a prominent place in comprehensive campus plans, and outline workable methods to achieve that objective.

This report was produced by the research team awarded the M. Perry Chapman Prize for 2014–2015. Their progress blog from the research year can be found here.

While face-to-face collaboration has been theorized to be a key element in intellectual development and cognition, no formal method of quantitative measurement has been applied to understand collective face-to-face learning in academic institutions or how patterns of interaction and individual reflection may reveal information exchange among students within educational institutions. To address this gap, this study introduces a novel tool and framework to promote the systematic study of peer collaboration for general use in education.

Results of this applied research will be useful to architects, interior designers, librarians, educators, and researchers interested in obtaining empirical evidence and applying it to the design of learning environments and the assessment of how well spaces intentionally relate to learning. This research project introduces a common means for researchers in space design, education, and information science to develop principles and best practices to improve return on investment in the design of informal learning environments.

[This] is a complete guide on strategic planning, presenting step by step the 5 major components of an integrated planning process. It is also a most useful, exhaustive, and updated list of definitions; presentation of all components and subcomponents; suggestions of strategies; and well-chosen examples . . . As I continue my work with Francophone universities, some in Africa, it will be my honor and pleasure to be inspired and accompanied by the Fountains’ guide.
—Roland Proulx, Consultant, Institutional Planning & Strategic Intelligence, University of Montreal

In light of globalization, technology advancements, decreased funding, and changing demographics, colleges and universities today face the challenges of transforming their institutions for the future. Through use of case studies, this book demonstrates how several institutions are transforming their traditional model for student services into a learner-centered model. The institutions, all participants in IBM's annual Innovation in Student Services Forum, provide a pragmatic view of how they have brought their vision to a reality. And with this book, you'll be ready to respond to these trends on your campus.

Few higher education administrators have adequate training in strategic planning. The costs of engaging in a poor planning process can range from disillusioned faculty, staff, and students, to poor use of vital resources, to failed accreditation reviews that can cause an institution to lose funding and prestige.

This report synthesizes the trends observed by more than 90 members of SCUP’s planning academies through the 2013 fall concurrent session proposal review process for SCUP’s 2014 annual, international conference (SCUP–49). This document is a flash report of the continuing and emerging issues of interest to SCUP. It’s a reflection of what is resonating in the minds of the academy members who participated as reviewers for the SCUP–49 concurrent proposal selection process, and of those who want to contribute to SCUP’s body of knowledge through their program submission.

This report synthesizes the trends observed by more than 90 members of SCUP’s planning academies through the 2012 fall concurrent session proposal review process for SCUP’s 2013 annual, international conference (SCUP–48). This document is a flash report of the continuing and emerging issues of interest to SCUP. It’s a reflection of what is resonating in the minds of the academy members who participated as reviewers for the SCUP–48 concurrent proposal selection process, and of those who want to contribute to SCUP’s body of knowledge through their program submission.

This report was produced by the research team awarded the inaugural M. Perry Chapman Prize in 2012.

This report is a collection that summarizes, and evaluates how far the field of learning space design has come in identifying the elements that will allow us to thoughtfully design learning spaces and evaluate their impact.

This article from the society's journal, Planning for Higher Education, explores the evolution of the Mills College campus and compares it with two larger western universities: the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University. The three campuses have commonalities, yet each exhibits a unique character and predominant architectural style.

Because technology is moving at a rapid pace, institutions are rethinking how they approach planning. Accelerated life cycles demand that attention be paid to planning on a continuous basis rather than on a "once every so many years" model. This publication, sponsored by Datatel, provides planners with a set of guiding principles as well as case study illustrations that put these principles into practice. If you need to know how technology is changing the way we plan for higher education, read this book and benefit from experts who have addressed today's challenges.

Internationally, this is the must-read higher education book for 2003. With authors from three continents, Norris, Mason, and Lefrere capture some exciting futures for higher education. "Between now and the year 2010, best practices in knowledge sharing will be substantially reinvented in all settings—education, corporations, government, and associations. That is our vision. This transformation is underway today."

As we enter the twenty-first century, we face the uncertainty of the changes that mark our transformation from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. How we meet the challenges of that transformation will determine our ability to succeed in the new age. This book, which became a national best-seller, provides readers in the field of higher education with insights into how they can meet the challanges. The following chapters are included: "Paradigm Lost, Paradigm Found," "What Is Transformation?" "Realigning with the Information Age Environment," "Redesigning to Meet the Needs of Information Age Learners," "Redefining Roles, Responsibilities, and Productivity," "Reengineering Organizational Processes," and "Introducing a Transformative Model to Your Campus."

What are the major issues for higher education in a fragile state? Surely they include stability, safety for students and staff, continued access to learning, funding, retaining staff, and maintaining quality. But how can these be achieved? Further, does higher education play a role in facilitating stability in a war environment? We will see that it does in many ways.

Fred M. Hayward, a specialist in higher education with more than 25 years of experience as an educator, scholar, senior administrator, and higher education consultant, has drawn on his more than 12 years of experience working closely with the Ministry of Higher Education in Afghanistan to write this reflective narrative.

A look at what the future looked like in 1995, and what happened in higher ed as we moved through seventeen years to 2013? Then, a look ahead . . . Remember: Just because we are changing a great deal does not mean we are transforming.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2015, the Society for College and University Planning is pleased to reissue 20/20 Planning, a short and lively history of SCUP’s first twenty years originally published in 1985.

Author Jeffrey Holmes was president of SCUP from 1978–1980 and recipient of SCUP’s first Distinguished Service Award in 1989. He gives his take on SCUP’s role in the evolution of college and university planning: from the late 1950s when campus planners first gathered to share knowledge and resources, through the society’s founding and rapid growth in the 1960s, its near-collapse in the ‘70s, and recovery and renewal by the mid–1980s.

Holmes poses a question as timely today as it was 30 years ago: Will SCUP use its experience and abilities to play a major higher education leadership role?